Cute. Shelley Winters is playing Shelley Summers. The highlight for me is when Gale Gordon is singing "Shortenin' Bread". I love Gale Gordon so much.
2 Reviews
Shelley Summers, haha
rerunwatcher12 May 2021
An Early Series Classic
kgraovac2 October 2023
This is my second favorite episode of the first season (after "Lucy's Working Daughter"). Shelley Winters pulls out all the stops and pokes fun of herself in this wonderfully funny episode. It's one of the rare times when the guest star was actually allowed to be funnier than Ms. Ball. Lucy basically plays the straight man here and lets Shelley get all the laughs.
With weight loss the primary goal, this episode has shades of "Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight" from 1965 except this one boasts a much better script and it's much funnier watching Shelley attempt exercise than Ann Sothern. The script is quite clever. Whenever a big name would guest on a Lucy show without playing themselves, they would always use their first name and a fictional last name. Here, Shelley Winters becomes Shelley "Summers"---get it?
The best scene is where Shelley starts scavenging her apartment for food she has stashed in every conceivable hiding spot-it's hilarious when she pulls a thin-crust pizza out of the stereo.
The early seasons of this show contained too many episodes that were hit-and-miss, but this early effort is one of the best of the whole series.
With weight loss the primary goal, this episode has shades of "Lucy and the Countess Lose Weight" from 1965 except this one boasts a much better script and it's much funnier watching Shelley attempt exercise than Ann Sothern. The script is quite clever. Whenever a big name would guest on a Lucy show without playing themselves, they would always use their first name and a fictional last name. Here, Shelley Winters becomes Shelley "Summers"---get it?
The best scene is where Shelley starts scavenging her apartment for food she has stashed in every conceivable hiding spot-it's hilarious when she pulls a thin-crust pizza out of the stereo.
The early seasons of this show contained too many episodes that were hit-and-miss, but this early effort is one of the best of the whole series.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
